


Waiting Room

by mllelaurel



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-11
Updated: 2010-02-11
Packaged: 2017-10-07 04:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mllelaurel/pseuds/mllelaurel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gathering strength, in the calm before the storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting Room

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on 7/28/2007. Some spoilers for Deathly Hallows.

The Room of Requirement has gone all plush on them. Maybe it's what they need, but it sure as hell not what Ginny wants. Across from her, she sees the same sentiment echoed in Tonks' face. ...Literally, when Tonks catches her looking. Red hair, freckles and a full-face sulk, and Ginny can't decide to scowl at her or burst into giggles. She winds up doing neither.

"I don't want to be here either," Tonks says at last. Her voice echoes, or maybe Ginny's just imagining things. She probably is.

"Yeah, but if we're not here, they'll probably make us leave." Send them somewhere else safe and _far_ from here. (A small part of Ginny would love that. Safe and far. But not by herself, no thank you. Not without her family.)

Off to the side, Ginny sees Augusta Longbottom draw her wand and look at it hard. As stories would have it, this little old woman managed to take out a whole passel of Death Eaters and get away clean. You gotta admire that.

"Let 'em try." Tonks' voice is determined, even if it's the sort of determined that breeds argument rather than quashing it. "They need us - and yes, I'm aware how pathetic that sounds, but that's going to be one hell of a battle out there, and we're..." She rakes her hands through her hair, red turning to black then to purple beneath thin fingers, "we're going to need every scrap of help we can get."

Ginny is pointedly not thinking about Volde- You Know Who's - no _Voldemort's_ army gathering outside. Surely her mind's going to come up with something ten times scarier than whatever reality is. Except that she's seen a piece of Tom Riddle's mind. Things are going to be scary just as they are.

It gets awfully quiet for a while. If Ginny listens closely, she can hear the hum of terrified preparation outside. Her hands clench into fists at her side, fingernails digging into her palms.

"We're going to be fighting with the rest of them, aren't we?" It comes out more statement than demand.

Tonks nods, her smile less wide than Ginny remembers it.

"It's going to be ok. We're going to be ok." Ginny's not sure who she's trying to fool, herself or the others. Either way, it doesn't work.

"We'll be more than ok. We'll be brilliant." Tonks is a better actress than Ginny could ever be. Her voice doesn't waver, even if she's clearly lying. It should be easier to pretend, with both of them trying so hard, but... Ginny wishes to hell she knew what she was doing when she launches herself at Tonks, hugging the older girl tightly, afraid to let go. Tonks doesn't say anything to that, just pets her back and waits it out with her. 's almost like having her mum here, only not.

"So, what are you going to do after this is over?"

Tonks grins. "Oh, the usual. Travel the world. Get rich and famous. String Umbridge up by her knickers outside the Ministry."

Ginny could swear that one got a tiny smirk out of Mrs. Longbottom. "A worthy sentiment, indeed."

"And you," Tonks segues. "What about you? You'll come visit us lots, right? Teddy could use someone to play with." So could his mum and dad, likely as not, Ginny thinks.

"'Course! Hey, how is Teddy anyway."

"He's great kid. More'n great. Keeps shifting his hair every second like I did at his age. I just hope he gets his dad's coordination skills and not mine, or else I'll wind up with a heart attack by the time he's crawling."

Ginny waved her hand. "Nonono, that's not supposed to happen till he's a teenager. Just ask Mum."

"Your Mum," Tonks informs her, "is a bloody saint. She scares me a bit."

"You'll be a fab mum too," Ginny says.

Whatever Tonks is about to reply gets lost as things outside get just a little bit louder, a door creaks open and Harry walks in.

"I'm going to need to use this room for a bit," he says almost sheepishly, and Ginny realizes that the waiting's over.


End file.
